Dave Anderson

So with one more gig in Sydney before Xmas/NY, I thought we should all get together for one last time to celebrate by biggest year in music. But I also thought, with such a busy xmas period, what would get my devoted few really excited?

I got thinking as to how I could recognise individuals who helped make this such a great year?

Why not an awards ceremony!

Hey I'm not making MTV or OZ Music awards anytime soon, so let's do our own. So over a glass, ok bottle of wine, we came up with the following catagories:

MVG - Most Valuable Gigger

Biggest Bar Spend at a Gig

Largest table purchase/refer a friend catagory

Tambourinist of the year (tradition to get someone on stage to play!)

Hall of Fame Inductees

So please join us on:

Sunday 14th December
Bar Me - El Rocco Jazz Cellar
Cnr Brougham and Williams St
Kings Cross
7pm
**Special Solo performance with loop pedals and a few guests ; )**

If you feel you are hard done by by not making the list, please comment below, or sulk like I do each time I register for an award ceremony and get rejected. Hey at least you didn't waste money on entering!

Labels: Blog

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Good in the face of a stranger

I'm enjoying Alex Lloyd's new and independently released album. Some have said it's a return to his Black the Sun days. It's older brother I read on his forum.

I particularly liked the space of the production, and the little things that are going on in the background. The opening 'are you ready in the studio' line, and the little intro where he walks into the pub full of people and starts playing over the top of talking pub drinkers. I was quite chuffed actually as my album has the same. Chuffed in that great minds think alike, not he ripped it from me obviously.

Many have said that Alex can be a little difficult. What a songwriter who is moody? Surely not? I guess then in a way this is almost an apology that yep he gets he is not always Guy Smiley. Hey at least it's something to write about...better than writing about a f&*ken umbrella, or whatever tripe that the Veronica's are singing about.

The thing that really threw me was this month's Rolling Stone Magazine that said the first real track 'Special' was a dud. Each to their own of course, but I couldn't disagree more. I actually thought it was one of the better tracks on the album. Slow Train is his single release, which is obviously another stand out given it's the single. I actually don't think there are many standout tracks on the album which is great. it's one of those albums you can leave in your car for weeks and still enjoy. Yes kids, album...in car...start to finish...no skipping. Epic isn't it.

As a side note, what's with songwriters and trains? Jack Johnson, David Ford, etc etc. I caught one every day for 3 years in the UK and still couldn't write anything about them. I probably did try ; )

Oh and then there is the fact that Alex has a black Cole Clark Fat Lady 3. Which as I said to him after a gig one time - 'Great guitar. The guys at Cole Clark told me I was the first and only one to have one of these custom made'. To which Alex replied - 'well you not, I have one.'

Cheers.

So in a way this album has a personal touch. Apology accepted Alex.

Labels: Blog, Recommends, Reviews

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I opened for Mark Wilkinson on Tuesday night, 25 Nov 08, along with Nick Latta band at the Vanguard in Newtown (Sydney). A really solid crowd turned up to the venue, with most people taking advantage of the dinner and show tix.

It's such a great room and yet it's such a shame when people talk. I figured people would talk during my set as I was up first, so I did my best to keep everyone's attention by asking for a sing along. A bit cheeky I know, but I had a review a while back that said you couldn't get the Vanguard crowd to sing along during dinner. He was probably right, but I did my best to get a sing along by saying, mid song:

"Apparently you can't get the Vanguard to sing while they are eating. I did try it at my launch but it was pretty unsuccessful. So I'm recording tonight, and I'd love to send the recording to the reviewer to prove him wrong!"

A nice sprinkling of crowd joined in. I played a short set, of only 30 minutes, after which I sat down to enjoy Nick Latta's band, as well as my steak.

Mark Wilkinson is a great singer/songwriter with a soulful voice not too dissimilar from Tracy Chapman or Jason Maraz. He has great stage presence and I was thoroughly enjoying getting lost in his stories of love, life and loss. Bridget A'Beckett a Melbourne songwriter and tonight backing vocalist/pianist, was the perfect compliment to Mark's music.

But what I just couldn't understand, and all respect to Mark as this happens in venue's all over Australia, is the table beside me still talking away. I heard on tv this morning that our attention spans have dropped to 5 minutes on average from 10 minutes sometime ago because of everyday stresses.

Now I'm not sure what these pretty young blonde things had to stress about except how many calories there was in the food, but they just didn't shut up. Don't f%&ken come to an intimate gig and not even try and listen. Please.

So whilst having to shut out the sounds of the chirping birds and bar fly's, the Vanguard patrons I thought on this night, got a great taste of the talented unsigned singer/songwriter's we have floating around Sydney.

Labels: Blog, Recommends, Reviews

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Opening for Mark Wilkinson and Bridget A'Beckett


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I opened for a super talented local singer/songwriter Mark Wilkinson last night (playing with songstress Bridget A'Beckett) at the Vanguard, Newtown. Mark was launching his impressive EP and I was honoured to play the velvet clad venue.

I played a short 30 minute set, consisting of two new songs not on the album - Last Night and Girl I Once Loved Married a Farmer. The highlight was a sing along and of course having a good mate, Kent Eastwood jump up to play the piano accordion on the last track.

Definately check out Mark's, Kents and Bridgette's! music.

Labels: Images, News

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1. Anything Pearl Jam



Once a upon a time I took a video camera into the Entertainment Centre in Perth to film a Pearl Jam gig because I loved them so much and saw so little of them. This was back before the internet was wide spread. My footage did get in the hands of one of the biggest Pearl Jam fans in Australia, and I did have offers to film more gigs! I only did it for my own reference, and used it to trade for other rare stuff, which I think I still have in boxes at my Mum's house. But I'm sure this footage is all available now anyway online. Takes the fun out of it really.

So...

- Touring band and Single Video Theory were the first official DVD's to come out and I loved them so much I'd drink my bottle of wine with my mates, pull out the guitars and play along and then head out on the town.

- Live at the Garden is just a classic Pearl Jam gig...somewhat better than my filming ; )

- Pick of the bunch is Imaggine in Cornice. Great between song behind the scenes footage with some stunning cinematography...(great word which I think is used in the right context here. It's all I really remember from year 12 english)

2. Dave Matthews Live at Central Park



A good mate of mine, yes Eggy you, used to play Dave Matthews 24/7 and when it wasn't on the tv or CD player he would be playing it on his guitar, and nailed it to! An acoustic based singer/songwriter Dave Matthews has an amazing range of songs from sad ballads, to big acoustic stadium fillers thanks to his solid band. I had picked up stacks of his DVD's from his frequent college gigs and loved them. Then when I was in the UK, Dave was apparently about to tour the UK which he didn't do much, and the Times Newspaper had a full page article which read 'Who is Dave Matthews'. The article started out by saying, that anyway that has sold as many albums as he has, and been one of only 5 artists to play Central Park has to be pretty big in the states. And yet unknown in the UK. Well not to me!

Live at Central Park is absolutely amazing. There is probably 200,000 people there but it looks like a million. The stand out track is Jimi Thing on disc 2 which I always put on for people who don't know Dave.

Sounds like you? Go get it...unbelievable!

3. Damien Rice live at St Lukes



Ok so this isn't an officially released DVD but I just couldn't leave it out, because it captures the irish singer/songwriter at the peak of his 'o' release stardom, and it just doesn't dissapoint. Set in an old church it's the setting by which all acoustic gigs should be judged by. The haunting vocals of Lisa Hannigan, the moody and hair standing ballards of Damien Rice, backed by a small backing band.

I'm sure you could find some footage of this on Youtube. It was shown on the BBC years ago. I of course didn't record it because that would be stealing right. Hopefully this is released soon because it's brilliant.

4. Jeff Tweedy - Sunken Treasure Live (Wilco)



I never understood why people digged Wilco so much. I thought his vocals weren't that great...I mean I was comparing to Eddie Vedder, Adam Duritz (counting crows) and Gomez (nuff said). This DVD however changed everything. It's shot in a documentary style following Jeff around the US as he plays solo acoustic gigs. Of course he is normally in full band mode, and at the time he had just recovered from drug addiction. His between song comments are enough to keep you entertained without the songs! His banter is just hillarious, and his songs grow on you with each listen.

I'm now a completely converted and reformed Wilco fan. By the way his new record Blue Sky Blue is unreal. You might have to order this DVD online as it's unlikely to be in store but's it's great. Watch it a few times though!

5. To the yet to be released

As revenue's from albums decreases and there is more emphasis on TV production, I'd expect to see more DVD's being released. Here is my top, I must have DVD's, that I am absolutely hanging out for:

- Epicure: Ballarat band with stunning moody songs. Very under rated. Their live shows are great, but I'd love to see them stripped back at the Vanguard or Basement with a full DVD production. Then maybe people in Australia might get it!

- Ben Harper: Live on Mars: This was recorded as I saw it on TV ages ago but I don't believe it's been released. Probably owned by the TV company and not the record company, but either way I hope we can see it as I listened to this album almost every night or a year and it's what got me addicted to writing and singing.

- Gomez: Anyone who has seen this band live will understand. 3 singers...well it's more like 3.5 singers because Ben's voice is like a gravel driveway. You need two sets of ear plugs when you hear him sing. Plus they are just so damn entertaining. My face hurts from smiling everytime I go to their gigs.

- Bernard Fanning - Solo gigs. I love Powerfinger but I'm a sucker for acoustic gigs. Their 2nd side acoustic disk from the Vulture St release was fantastic. But I'd love to see the Tea and Sympathy gigs on DVD. I missed the shows...yep idiot, but apparently they were great.

- David Ford: He's a one man band who is just a freak. I saw him play at the Hopetoun and it was f^&ken amazing. Buy his albums, get his posters and get on board.

Here you go

Labels: Blog, Reviews

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I went to an awesome set on Friday night down at the Empire in Annandale, and after the gig found myself chatting to other punters. To be honest I was kind of taking back by how friendly everyone was. Not the norm in inner city Sydney, and even the inner west for that matter. I know that sounds a little harsh but it is difficult to feel like your in a community sometimes, especially when most sentences start with 'well I'm'.

So anyway I asked if they ever bought albums off Itunes and the answer, like mine, was sometimes but they prefer to buy from the store. It got me thinking about my album, and how it has only ever so slightly ticked over on itunes. It was very simple to get it onto itunes, and it once there I thought if people wanted it they could get it without me having to do anythihg.

But now I'm thinking I have really missed an opportunity to sell a few more in stores, particularly with strong reviews in main st press.

The hardest thing of course is getting the record into the stores. Most of the main st stores require a physical distributor who of course will take their 30% cut if not more. You also obviously need to promote it to get it to move off the shelf.

I did send Fish records an email ago ages enquiring about stocking my record, which they quiet quickly replied back and said yes, and this is how you to do it. And yet I still didn't send it.

So this week I'm going to gather up my CD's that are sittting neatly packed in boxes and send them out to Fish stores, with my neat little 4/5 Sydney Morning Herald stickers on them.

Why didn't I do this earlier? Probably cos I just assumed everyone would want it on itunes. Silly mistake.

So if your an indie looking to get it into the store...ring Fish.

Labels: Blog, Learnings

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Time is certainly not unlimited so here is some idea's that I've learnt (the hard way) that will help you automate your manual administrative tasks can so you can spend more time doing the things that matter. Like above.

This is the first post in a series that will cover:
- The Website
- Email Marketing/Database Software
- Rich media website
- Event promotion
- RSS (Real Simple Syndication...yes it is real simple!)

Note: This is fairly simple stuff and is aimed at people starting out, or those looking for advice to save time. Not hardcore programmers or techies!

#1: Your Website
It goes without saying that your website is one of the most import promotional tools you have. It can also be one of the biggest time wasters! I used to spend days and days tweaking even the smallest little things, manually updating and designing each page in Dreamweaver.

In fact I estimated at one stage that I was spending 30-40 hours per week on my website alone, and that was on small details. Doesn't leave much time for music that's for sure, and my relationship was...mmm...what's the word...tested!

Things are far simplier now thanks to Wordpress and Blogger. I'm a Blogger user, but have played around with Worpress as well. I can barely separate these two. Most of the guru's suggest that Wordpress has more plugins and widgets which essentially allows you to add more cool things, but I think Blogger might have caught up now.

I've been using Blogger for quite a while now and just can't bring myself to relearn something else (more time on the beach remember!).

Essentially both sites are so simple you could have a website up in 5 minutes. If your serious you would then probably look to buy your own domain name like I did. i.e my blogger address is something like www.blogspot.com/daveandersononline, but of course I market www.daveandersononline.com or www.daveanderson.com.au

Blogger can also help you do that as well!

Dynamic Publishing

My primary reason for moving to Blogger was it's ability to dynamically publish. What does that mean? Here's an example:

- I have a gig coming up. I used to open my music page in dreamweaver, add the details, save and publish.
- I would then have to open the homepage and add a link, or a message to say I had done that.
- Of course people land all sorts of places on your website through search, so I used to open every page, add this link to the right hand column and save/publish.

That's like 8 or 9 different pages! I would also always find little design faults and then would tweak away at them for hours!

Now I just login into Blogger, write my content in a window that is as easy to use as a simple version of Microsoft Word, and publish. I don't have to visit my site or Blogger for that matter. I can email my posts from my email account or my mobile!

My site automatically creates archives of content, and I can tag content so that people can easily find what they are interested in. The various pages on my site are tags. i.e each time I make a post I say where it should be filed. This will get filed in Blog, Technology and Learnings, and will therefor appear on these relevant pages.

Design and CSS

With Blogger I have one design template using CSS (cascading style sheets which essentially tell my pages how they should look), and I publish once and it updates all over the site. Takes me probably 5 minutes as opposed to 2 hours.

If I want to tweak the look of my site, for instance I want to change the banner at the top, I do this in the CSS style sheet and it updates the entire site.

Now ensuring that your page is designed correctly, has content in navigation pane so you can see easily find what your looking for takes a bit more skill and plenty of tweaking. There is no 100% this is how you to do it formula which I guess is the fun part. I suppose this is what I spend most of my time doing, updating little chicklets, changing the web banners, playing with my jump menu's.

There are plenty of free templates around which you can easily tweak or of course you could get someone to build it for you. If you don't know how to do it, either get someone to teach you or get them to build it. You have to get Photoshop and learn the basics as a start.

Web 2.0
The other fantastic thing about these sites, and the reason why they are so popular is that they allow comments, sharing, and RSS. It's all managed by the Blogger code so I don't have to do anything to it. I'll go into RSS detail in a later post.

I think that's about it. My site is actually hosted externally blogger so I can't use a number of the easy templates. I've had to tweak a lot of scipts and codes to get it right but I guess it's all learning.

So what are you waiting for. www.blogger.com

Labels: Learnings, Technology

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